video This is officially a trend: following in the footsteps of Carrie Prejean, “Miss Beverly Hills” Lauren Ashley—apparently a real title, though the city of Beverly Hills has distanced itself from her—has come out in defense of all that is moral and just in the world and against the looming menace of gay marriage. (more...)

I know, you're probably thinking what I was, "He's not actually calling her a tool, is he?" In a tease to commercial on last night's Countdown, Keith Olbermann did a short meditation on how "Former Half-Governor Sarah Palin" could end up being a tool for Republicans, a tool for Tea Partiers, and a tool for Democrats in the midterms. Had he left it at that, he would have completed a did-he-or-didn't-he, deniable slam on Palin. Instead, much like his Carrie Prejean self-love slam, he just couldn't resist hanging a lantern on it. (more...)

 

When Oprah asked Sarah Palin about Levi Johnston's Playgirl shoot, she said, "I call it porn." But is it?

The NSFW pictures prove that Levi didn't show us everything -- so to speak -- and the pictures don't include any frontal nudity. The pictures of the 19-year old are no more explicit than what you'd see on an episode of Nip/Tuck and less (homo)erotic than an Ultimate Fight Championship match. Some shower shots with a strategically-placed towel, a naked backside and some steamed-up mirror pics. That's it. (more...)

Yikes. Funny or Die sent out their weekly newsletter today with this featured video: Carrie Prejean Sex Tape — aka, "The exclusive never before seen video that Carrie Prejean has been trying to keep you from seeing." Well, that was worth a click to see what they did with it. Anything surprising or unique? Not really, it was pretty much what you'd expect (except for an eyeball-searing "Bush" joke) — until the end, with a surprise reveal...Perez Hilton. (Sorry, I just ruined the surprise, but it's not really news otherwise.) Needless to say it was a surprise to see him, especially wearing so little. Am I joking? Maybe, you'll have to watch and see. But either way, I did learn that Hilton can't really sing. (more...)

MSNBC, 12:47pmET: Is Carrie Prejean really, "Still Standing," as her book title suggests? Because to MSNBC, she just may be in fact sitting down, or apparently being picked up in an embrace by a jilted ex. Or, of course, taping herself... (more...)

video Carrie Prejean + Donald Trump = publicity-hungry awkwardness. Trump weighed in on the Prejean-Larry King interview and near-walk-off last night on HLN's Showbiz Tonight. Guess what - he made it sexual. (more...)

video When you agree to an interview with CNN's Larry King, you better come correct, because that guy will nail you - with softballs. Author and preachy solo sex tape performer Carrie Prejean found that out last night the hard way, as she fell prey to the 'tough' questions from King and almost walked off set. (more...)

Last night on Countdown, Keith Olbermann did another in a long series of segments castigating former Miss California Carrie Prejean, but he added a little something extra at the end. He signs off the segment, in which he discusses the sex tape that features Prejean "by herself," with a two, then three, fingered "Girl Scout" salute. Where to begin? Here's the segment. Keith's salute is at the very end, and doesn't appear in MSNBC's version of the clip:
The gesture is either a fairly obvious attempt at shock humor, or an accidental one. Given MSNBC's history of thinly-veiled entendre, and the context here, I'd say it's the former. It's ironic that he uses a Girl Scout salute as the fig leaf since, unlike the Boy Scouts of America, the Girl scouts don't discriminate against gay people.

The joke is likely to delight many of Prejean's detractors, embittered toward her over her support of California's Proposition 8. Just as surely, it will offend many others who observe the double standard that Prejean points out in the segment. I find it emblematic of the wrongheadedness of the anti-Prejean narrative. The Carrie Prejean story began with an honest answer to a divisive question at a beauty pageant. Asked if she believed that same-sex marriage should be legal in all 50 states, she stated her personal belief that marriage should be between a man and a woman, but also said that she was happy to live in a country where people can choose "same-sex marriage or opposite marriage." As Jake Tapper pointed out, this position hews closely to that of President Obama. She was immediately and viciously attacked by Perez Hilton, the judge who asked the question, using vile misogynist slurs. The rest of the media piled on by mocking her use of the term "opposite marriage," elevating her to the status of media martyr. It was only then that she became useful to the National Organization for Marriage, and decided to support the dissolution of thousands of legal marriages. The response to this was to make fun of her breasts, compare her to a Nazi and a dog, leak R-rated pictures of her, and now, delight in the revelation of this sex tape. The point of this is supposed to be to expose her as a hypocrite, which eludes me somewhat. She's a model, so how do breast implants and sexy pictures make her a hypocrite? The fact that she sent a sex video to her boyfriend doesn't make her a hypocrite, it makes her an awesome girlfriend. No, the real point was to embarrass and humiliate her. The effect was not to silence, but to amplify her. What makes Carrie Prejean a hypocrite is her insistence that she wants to protect marriages by supporting laws that destroy them. If the left had focused more on that, and less on destroying her personally, Carrie Prejean would be a dim memory now. Instead, they get to be wrong right alongside her.

video Carrie Prejean gave an exclusive interview to her favorite cable news program - Sean Hannity's Fox News show - last night, and she had a lot to talk about. Prejean has a tell-all book out this week, and there are rumors of a sex tape floating around. Yeah, a sex tape. (more...)

It’s the weekend, which means it’s time to separate the chumps from the champs in Mediaite’s new “Winners and Losers” — our scorecard of who rocked and who flopped in the week’s headlines. This week's contenders include: President Bush, adding "motivational speaker" to his resume, Sarah Palin posting an online resume, and Jay Leno, who might be wise to start updating his resume. Our picks below: (more...)

Because even calendars -- calendars, of all things! -- have to be politicized, somehow: the Clare Boothe Luce Policy Institute has put together a calendar highlighting one conservative woman for each month of the year. Carrie Prejean and Michele Bachman are on the list; don't you want to know the rest? (more...)

video You might think the people attending today's Value Voters Summit in Washington D.C. would be the sort of folks who make up a large part of Fox News' viewership: headliners today included Carrie Prejean, Mike Huckabee, and Michele Bachmann, and tonight's keynote is being given by Fox host Bill O'Reilly. This warm welcome however, apparently does not extend to Fox cameras. Fox News reporter James Rosen was asked to leave the premises this afternoon while broadcasting live from the Summit (his contempt for the attendee "crowding" his space and asking for his removal is hard to miss.) This avoidance of cameras (Fox, or otherwise) seems to be a theme for the Value Voters people: according to Politico not even O'Reilly's address will be open to cameras. Video of Rosen's exchange below. UPDATE: And video of MSNBC's similar struggles can be found here. (more...)

POLL Judd Apatow was going to be on the cover of Time this week (and he's still in the issue for his latest film Funny People), but health care is on the tip of everyone's tongue so the funnyman got subbed out for President Obama in a lab coat. It's entirely possible that if we picked up this issue of Time we'd learn nearly everything we need to know, or could stand to know, about the ongoing health care debate. But where's the pop? (more...)

At least when it comes to page views. The New York Times' Brian Stelter is reporting on the speculation that the Washington Post fired columnist Dan Froomkin because his column's page views were low.

The paper’s ombudsman, Andrew Alexander, said in a blog post that “reduced traffic played a big role” in the decision. Fred Hiatt, the editorial page editor of the Post, told the Washington City Paper that “his traffic had gone way down.”

Welcome to the new media age, where news has become a popularity contest! (more...)

Two high-profile stories about the intersection of racism and the Republican Party are exploding all over the internet. The flap over comments at Free Republic and the Young Republicans' election of a new president make for a sour cocktail this weekend. (more...)